LEON BAKST: Beautiful Vasilissa and the Monster 


EXHIBITION OF 


RUSSIAN PAINTING 
AND SCULPTURE 


FOREWORD BY 


WILLIAM HENRY FOX 


WITH INTRODUCTION AND CATALOGUE BY 


CHRISTIAN BRINTON 


THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM 
1923 


Copyright, 1923, by Christian Brinton 


NATALIA GONCHAROVA: Costume Design, La Liturgie 
Lent by Mrs. Elise M. Stern 


FOREWORD 


HILE the war left in its wake much to deplore, it had 

one happy result for this country. It brought to us the 
products of European culture in volume and richness hitherto 
undreamed of. Since 1914, the Brooklyn Museum has afforded 
the opportunity of placing Europe’s best contemporary art 
before the New York public. Sweden, France, Switzerland, 
and England, have successively exhibited in these galleries the 
work of their most talented artists. Again a rare privilege 
is placed within reach of the American public. For the first 
time 1s Russian art shown in the United States in anything ap- 
proaching its true strength and unity. In the current exhibi- 
tion, twenty-three artists have united to show their work side 
by side for the purpose of indicating to the American people 
the significance of contemporary Russian art. The Brooklyn 
Museum has the honour to welcome these disinterested pioneers, 
and to thank them for their gracious co-operation. The Mu- 
seum likewise tenders grateful thanks to the French Govern- 
ment, to Mr. Edward Duff Balken, Mrs. George Blumenthal, 
Mr. Robert Winthrop Chanler, Mr. William Astor Chanler, 
Mrs. Clarkson Cowl, Miss Elsie de Wolfe, Miss Katherine 
S. Dreier, Miss Helen Frick, Mrs. John W. Garrett, Mr. Morris 
Gest, Mr. Raymond Henniker-Heaton, Mr. John R. Hunter, 
Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, Mrs. Thomas L. Leeming, Mr. Adolph 
Lewisohn, Mrs. Philip Lewisohn, Mrs. Benjamin Moore, Mr. 
James N. Rosenberg, Mr. Robert Schwarzenbach, Mrs. Elise 
M. Stern, Mr. William S. Stimmel, Mrs. Wiliam K. Vanderbilt, 
Mrs. Efrem Zimbalist, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Worces- 
ter Art Museum, the Société Anonyme, the Kingore Galleries, 
M. Knoedler & Co., the New Gallery, and the Galleries of 
Mrs. Albert Sterner. To Dr. Christian Brinton the Museum 
expresses grateful appreciation of valued assistance, and for 
the notable catalogue of the exhibition, with cover design by 
Vadim Chernov. 

WiuuramM Henry Fox. 


NATALIA GONCHAROVA: Oriental Woman 
Lent by Dr. Christian Brinton 


INTRODUCTION 


By CHRISTIAN BRINTON 


Il w y a pas de style Russe; il y a Vame Russe 


RANSPORTED to us upon the magic carpet of circum- 

stance, exotic of aspect and passionate in appeal, is the 
current display of Russian painting and sculpture. Whatever 
else it may achieve, Slavonic aesthetic expression offers a 
vivid epitome of the national consciousness. A thousand years 
of shifting pageantry, the successive ascendancy of influences 
now Byzantine, now Mongolian, now frankly European, have 
altered the outward semblance, but not the inner spirit of 
Russian art. Emerging from an austere, hieratic, or sumptu- 
ously boyarian background, Slavonic painting and sculpture 
look toward a future not less eloquent or less typical. 

The art that unfolds itself before us upon these walls is 
strictly contemporary. Though its roots sink deep into the 
ages, this work is of to-day, and fully reflects actual condi- 
tions and tendencies. Despite the tragic vicissitudes of the 
last few years, each of the exhibitors is still living, and several 
of them have fortunately reached our shores. You thus have 
before you not Russian art in retrospect, but Russian art as it 
is currently seen in Moscow, Berlin, Venice, or Paris. The 
magic carpet that bears the plastic and colouristic message of 
Russia around the world, has for the moment descended into 
our midst. 

Modern Russian art begins, you doubtless recall, with the 
secession from the Imperial Academy, in 1863, of an aspiring 


band of radicals headed by Ivan Kramskoy, who rebelled 
against the sterile formalism of routine instruction, and de- 
manded more vital themes from which to work. Within the 
ensuing decade they organized a thriving society known as the 
Peredvizhniki, or Wanderers, and carried their programme 
triumphantly throughout the country. Realism, and an ardent 
nationalism were their watchwords, and for a generation their 
position remained unchallenged. 

The foremost exponent of Russian realism is the masterful 
Cossack, Ilya Repin, and in a measure the mantle of Repin 
has descended upon the shoulders of one of his favourite pu- 
pils, Nikolai Fechin. In its essential features the art of 
Fechin is Repinesque. You note in these portraits and char- 
acter studies from the picturesque, semi-Tatar district about 
Kazan, provincial types in all their primitive verity. Fechin 
in fact came from Kazan, and it was to Kazan that he returned 
after his *~prentice days at the Imperial Academy to depict 
that life and scene for which he evinces such abiding sympathy. 

During the years when Fechin pursued his studies at the 
modest art school in his native city, and passed the summer 
months sketching in remote, outlying village, there used to 
forgather at the home of Alexander Benois in the Oulitza 
Glinki, a coterie of artists and intellectual aristocrats to 
whom the name of Repin was anathema. They abhorred 
realism. They betrayed scant love for peasant or proletarian, 
and passed unforgetable nights in feverish discussion, or 
strolling along the Neva quays singing arias from Tchaikoy- 
sky’s Queen of Spades, while the chimes from the cathedral 
tower of St. Peter and St. Paul sonorously chanted the hours. 
The sensitive, penetrant intellect of the group was Benois 
himself, its dynamic impetus derived from Diaghilev, and its 


chief artistic asset was the ever facile and fecund Bakst. They 
perforce had to have their medium of publicity, and in due 
course appeared Mir Iskusstva, the early issues of which con- 
tained a series of spirited onslaughts upon the excessive 
xenphobia and provinciality of the day. 

To the undying disgust of Stasov and the old guard, Mir 
Iskusstva, and the art exhibitions organized under its auspices, 
exalted that which was exclusive, eclectic, and European rather 
than Slavic. ‘We are a generation hungry for beauty,” pro- 
claimed Diaghilev, and beauty they discovered in the sophis- 
ticated eroticism of Somov, the rococo irreality of Lanceray, 
and the delicately traced vignettes of Dobujinsky. Led by 
Benois, who had lived at Versailles, they were one and all 
retrospectivists. They harked back to Sévres and Saxon 
figurine, to the Empire, Louis Seize, Peterhof, the shaded 
seclusion of Pavlovsk park, and the picturesque and appealing 
charm of Old St. Petersburg. They did their best, in short, to 
disguise, to de-Russianize themselves. 

Yet the consuming energy and ambition of Diaghilev proved 
the salvation of Mir Iskusstva, and of these young dilettanti 
from the College May. Relinquishing the review, which 
had proved a costly adventure, Diaghilev turned his attention 
to the stage, where he proceeded to fulfill his destiny as the 
supreme artist-impressario of theatrical history. Decorators 
rather than painters, the members of Mir Iskusstva likewise 
achieved their chief successes in scenic production. Here 
Bakst disclosed the passionate splendours of Cleopatra and 
Scheherazade, Benois the poignant fantasy of Petrushka, 
Anisfeld a luxuriant chromatic imagination, and Roerich the 
smouldering intensity and dramatic suspense of the Polov- 
etzky Stan scene from Prince Igor. When Diaghilev raised 


the curtain upon the initial representations of the Ballet 
Russe at the Chatelet in 1909, he revealed to Western eyes a 
new art form. The exhibition of Russian painting seen at the 
Grand Palais three years previously, failed to enthuse the Pari- 
sian public as did the sudden apparition of the Ballet Russe. 
Here was a veritable synthesis of the arts—fresh, daring, 
replete with plastic and colouristic fervour, and fused by a 
truly creative imagination into a single, organic ensemble. 

A salutary antidote to the general spirit of Petrograd 
preciosity, which lingered like a frail blossom on the brink of 
an abyss, was shortly found in mellow, full-flavoured Moscow. 
If Petrograd is classic and apollonian, Moscow is joyous, 
vital, and genuinely dionysian. It was at the private theatre 
of the merchant prince Mamontov, a veritable Muscovite 
Metzenat, that latter-day Russian stage décor first came into 
being, and it was in this same fruitful atmosphere that con- 
temporary Russian painting received its most significant stim- 
ulus. Vrubel it was who flung his resplendent, demon-haunted 
fantasy against the dull reality of the Peredvizhniki, and in the 
train of Vrubel and his Swan Princess followed Korovin, the 
sumptuous colourist, Aleksandr Golovin, and a score of lesser 
lights. The drift away from actuality was synchronic. For, 
just as the flaming vision of Vrubel soon overcast Repin and 
the realists of brush and palette, so the conscious scenic 
artistry of Meyerhold marked a similar reaction against the 
zealous illusionism of Stanislavsky and his colleagues of the 
Khudozhestvenny Teatr. 

The first decade of the present century in Moscow was a 
period of inspiring ferment. While a few of the local artists 
were admitted into the rarefied ranks of the Mir Iskusstva, 
the majority remained faithful to the Soyuz, or banded to- 


gether in rebel groups and under frankly insurgent banners. 
They welcomed the French modernists long before their Petro- 
grad brethren were aware of their existence, and it is im- 
possible to overlook the influence upon the present generation 
of Moscow artists of such epoch-making figures as Cézanne, 
Gauguin, van Gogh, Henri-Matisse, Picasso, and the Futurists. 

Led by the ardent progressives, Larionov, Goncharova, 
Gonchalovsky, Tatlin, and Burliuk, the younger set employed 
the most rudimentary tactics in order to place themselves and 
their theories before the public. Larionov paraded the 
Tverskaya arrayed in cubist costume, while the dynamic 
Burliuk displayed his canvases on street corners, to the ac- 
companiment of eloquent explanatory comments by himself. 
Various societies such as the Blue Rose, the Target, the 
Donkey’s Tail, and the Budnovy Valyet, or Knave of 
Diamonds, sprang into being, the latter surviving the rest 
and commanding most consideration and support. It was 
all vastly different from formal, patrician Petrograd, but 
despite a deal of gratuitous clamour, the participants were 
sincere, and possessed of unquestioned talent. 

The real spirit of Moscow was not, however, reflected in 
such sporadic manifestations. And just as Petrograd, the 
“Palmyra of the North,” discloses in Leon Bakst an epitome 
of suave, sensuous neo-Hellenism, so in Sergei Sudeykin 
Moscow has produced an artist who depicts as none other the 
geniality, the gusto, and the inextinguishable love of life that 
typify the city by the Moskva. Yet the art of Sudeykin, 
like that of Bakst, is retrospective in spirit. It glances back to 
the picturesque period of 1830 and 1840, to Gogol and to 
Ostrovsky. And now and then, with a passion and imagina- 
tion which bespeak the poet that lurks at the heart of every 


genuine satirist, it reaches toward the sumptuous realm 
stretching away to South and East—the land of Gipsey, Georg- 
ian, and Bashkir. The pageant of Russian art reveals no more 
characteristic figure than this same diverting Sudeykin, of 
whom Benois once said, “‘il est venu au monde en dansant.”’ 

Possessing such a heritage racial and aesthetic, it is scant 
wonder that the Russian artist should feel impelled to draw 
upon his incomparable native patrimony. ‘The remote, aus- 
tere varengian, Nikolai Roerich, leads us magically back to the 
pale half light of history. Natalia Groncharova and Vadim 
Chernov evoke for us the mystic spirit of saint and apostle, 
which gleams from ikon or the frescoed wall of cathedral and 
monastery. And Larionov, once he lays aside a doctrinaire 
modernism, delves into the treasure-troves of popular fancy, 
bringing forth, as in his Contes Russes, images that recall more 
than all else the creations of the genial fabulist Krylov. The 
sheer fecundity of these artists is amazing. They discover 
effective motifs anywhere and everywhere—at rural fétes and 
fairs, in the quaint signs of provincial shop and traktir, and 
the crudely tinted toys of simple peasant child. In some guise 
or other this varied and vigorous stream of form and colour 
finds its way into the more conscious production of the pro- 
fessional artist. And it is the Moscow painters who most fully 
appreciate its essential beauty and validity. For Moscow has 
ever remained closest to the national ideals, and the creative 
aspirations, of the great mass of the Russian people. 

The achievement of the foregoing men and their colleagues 
of brush and chisel brings our slender survey of contemporary 
Russian art down to the beginning of the war and the conse- 
quent dissolution of the old order. The period from the forma- 
tion of the Peredvizhniki to the advent of the Mir Iskusstva, 


and the more virile and autonomous Moscow group, was, as we 
have noted, a period of sober, pedestrian endeavour. The 
decade that extended from the Russo-Japanese war to 1914 
was characterized by a passionate quest of beauty, and an un- 
paralleled florescence of creative and colouristic fancy. And 
while it was Diaghilev and his Ballet Russe who first captured 
the enthusiasm of the Western world, Russian painting as such 
had won its right to be considered upon its own merits quite 
apart from the lustre it lent to opera and choreodrama. 
Comprehensive as was Diaghilev’s exhibition at Paris in 1906, 
it proved but a prelude to that which was to follow. 

The arrival of the war and the dislocation of forces politi- 
eal, social, and economic, wrought rapid changes in the physi- 
ognomy of Russian art. Following the outbreak of the revolu- 
tion, a number of painters and sculptors fled the country to 
seek refuge abroad. Paris and Berlin claimed a goodly quota, 
and are still gaining fresh recruits. Our own first visitor was 
Boris Anisfeld, who crossed the Trans-Siberian and reached 
us early in 1918. Anisfeld was followed by Roerich, who had 
paused en route in Finland, Sweden, and England, and was 
met on the dock by his friend, Derujinsky, but lately landed 
from the Black Sea port of Novorossysk. With the fall of the 
Kerensky government, there began an exodus of the Russian 
_intelligensia that may be likened to the departure of the Italian 
artists for France during the later Renaissance, or the migra- 
tion of the Saracens to Spain. Only those of sturdy temper or 
aspiring expectancy, such as Burliuk and Boris Grigoriev, 
elected to remain in Russia, and they, too, subsequently 
turned their faces, one to East, the other to West. 

The three artists of the present exhibition in whose work 
you can discern traces of the social and political cataclysm 


' that has overtaken their country are Burliuk, Grigoriev, 
and Manievich. Each lingered within the red flare of the 
Terror, and each has recorded his impressions in characteristic 
fashion—Burliuk modernistically, Grigoriev humanistically, 
Manievich with a touch of imaginative synthesis. While the 
reaction of the revolution upon the sensibilities of Burliuk and 
Manievich was but transitory, in the case of Grigoriev it sank 
deeper into the well-springs of his creative consciousness. 

With a vigour of statement that recalls the Italian primi- 
tives—a rigour of line and an integrity of purpose that suggest 
Matteo di Giovanni or Mantegna—Grigoriev pictures for us in 
a series of unforgetable panels life as he witnessed it in Sov-— 
depia. There is indeed a phantasmal quality to the painting 
entitled Visages Russes that suggests some strange, apoca- 
lyptic vision, a tortured memory, an hallucination. As a 
product of Bolshevist Russia the canvas has no parallel in art, 
and in literature can only be compared to Blok’s Twelve. And 
yet Grigoriev is not exclusively an apostle of that ruthless 
reversion to type of which Blok, Bely, and Mayakovsky are 
notable examples. In his less stressful moments his outlook 
is serene and truly kindliche. Despite its frank eclecticism, 
its restless range from Mantegna to Montmarte, from primi- 
tive to neo-cubist, the basis of Grigoriev’s art lies in its sound 
and superb draughtsmanship. The man is a master of graphic — 
expression. His colouring, which, for the most part, is the 
clear-toned mujik colouring he so loves, is merely suggestive. 
His triumph lies in his command of line and in his innate 
plastic power. 

Creative activity in Russia, as elsewhere, oscillates with 
approved regularity between conservatism and a salutary 
modernity. While in the tempestuous cubo-futurism of Bur- 


liuk, and that hint of social mysticism you note in the can- 
vases of Grigoriev, we have indications of profound unrest, the 
more acute products of Russian radicalism have not yet 
reached our shores. Larionov and Goncharova we already 
know. Paris is familiar with Chagall, but Tatlin and “‘tatlin- 
ism,’ Casimir Malyevich and “‘suprematism,” together with 
the work of Kamyensky, Rodschenko, Kulbin, Falk, Olga 
Rosanova, and Lentulov, do not find place in the present 
Brooklyn Museum exhibition. Thus far in fact, they have 
not pushed beyond the Gallery van Diemen in Berlin, and 
recent issues of Jar-Ptitza. 

The corrective to this latter-day experimentation, much of 
which in itself is obviously sociological as well as aesthetic, is 
however found in full strength upon these walls. Despite a 
congenital freedom of temper, even Grigoriev betrays elements 
of conservatism, while in the work of Jakovlev, Shukhaiev, 
and Sorin, we revert to standards that are frankly academic. 
As familiar with Cézanne as they are with Cimabue, with 
Picasso as they are with Pisanello, these young men have elec- 
ted to pursue the pathway of moderation, not to say reaction. 
Former pupils of the Imperial Academy, they perpetuate the 
traditions of that imposing institution on the Vassili Ostrov, 
the portals of which were but recently closed after a cen- 
tury and a half of organized activity. 

Severe, disciplined, synthetic, and basing itself upon a 
deep-rooted reverence for form, the art of Jakovlev leans now to 
the static calm of the Orient, now to the serene naturalism of the 
Florentine primitives. Almost as painstaking in its fidelity to 
what may be termed the essential probity of visual representa- 
tion, is the work of Shukhaiev, while Sorin suggests the com- 
plex psychology of the modern woman with a lineal beauty 


and surety recalling the baffling impeccability of Jean-Auguste- 
Dominique Ingres. Distinctly post-revolutionary, the work 
of these latter men points toward that New Idealism which, 
in Russian literature and music as well, has begun to cast 
over a sorely troubled world its reassuring rays. 

Whatever its deficiencies, the present display of Russian 
artistic activity is not lacking in variety of interest or inspira- 
tion. To the foregoing names may be added those of the young 
Georgian mystic and neo-orientalist, Lado Gudiachvili, the 
Parisianized Feder, the accomplished draughtsman and 
decorative scenic artist Nikolai Remisov, and the sculptors, 
Arkhipenko, Derujinsky, Patlagean, and Sudbinin, in whose 
work we encounter the same individual play of creative forces 
as in that of the painters. 

Realistic, naturalistic, idealistic, stylistic, or fanciful and 
extramundane, Russian art, graphic or plastic, possesses certain 
specific points in common. It evinces, in particular, a pro- 
nounced hypostatic accord between art and life. The transi- 
tion from one to the other is accomplished with perfect ease and 
spontaniety. A marked sensibility of temper characterizes 
Russian artistic activity. First, last, and always, these Slavs 
are emotional, and their art displays above all an organic 
emotionalism that nothing seems to efface. The art of France 
shows the dominance of intellect over imagination; that of 
Russia illustrates the ascendancy of imagination over the 
intellect. In its every aspect Russian art epitomizes the 
eternal struggle toward freedom through sublimated creative 
expression. And the significant qualities of Slavic aesthetic 
aspiration are its conviction, and its power to convince. It 
beckons eloquently toward that kingdom which all seek, that 
radiant realm— out tout y est vrai, bien que rien n’y soit réel. 


CATALOGUE 


« 


CATALOGUE 


PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS 


ANISFELD, Boris 


Boris IsRARLEVICH ANISFELD was born October 2, 1879, at Bieltsy, 
Bessarabia. At sixteen he entered the Odessa School of Fine Arts, 
where he remained five years. In 1901 left for Petrograd to continue 
his studies at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, his professors being 
Kovalevsky and Kardovsky. Began painting theatrical décors in 1905. 
Sociétaire, Salon d’Automne, 1906. Came, February, 1918, via Japan 
to America, where he has since resided. 


1 Garden of the Hesperidies 
2 Rebekah at the Well 


3 The Exodus 
Lent by the Brooklyn Museum 


4 Early Spring 
Lent by Miss Helen Frick 


5 Spring Landscape 
6 Still-life Subjects I, I, II, IV 
7 Décors for Snegurochka I, II, II 


Eight Décors for The Love of Three Oranges 
Lent by the Art Institute of Chicago 


8 The Prologue 
9 Room in the Palace 
10 The Prince’s Room 


11 The Castle of the Sorceress 
12 The Palace of Kronta 

13 Desert Scene 

14 The Throne Room 

15 Cabalistic Curtain 


16 Décor for Islamey 
Lent by Mrs. Thomas L. Leeming 


BAKST, Lron 
Courtesy of M. Knoedler & Co. 


Lron SamoitovicH Baxst was born April 17, 1868, at Petrograd. 
Entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts at seventeen, his pre- 
ceptor being Chistiakov. In 1895 settled in Paris, where he pursued 
his studies under Albert Edelfeldt. Returned to Russia, 1897. From 
1899 was identified with Mir Iskusstva and the development of stage 
décor under Diaghilev. Legion of Honour, 1914. Member, Imperial 
Academy, Petrograd, 1916. Came to America December, 1922. 


17 Mrs. John W. Garrett 
Lent by Mrs. Garrett 


18 Madame Ida Rubenstein 


19 Décor for Scheherazade 
Lent by Mrs. George Blumenthal 


20 Décor for Dames de bonne humeur 


21 Caucasian Danse 
Lent by Miss Elsie de Wolfe 


22 Une Chasseresse 
23 Harlequin 
24. Columbine 


25 Faun 
Lent by Mrs. Efrem Zimbalist 


26 Beautiful Vasilissa and the Monster 
27 The Firebird 

28 Russian Bride 

29 Echo abandonnée 

30 Russian Princess of Former Days 


31 Rich Peasant 
Lent by Mrs. Benjamin Moore 


32 Russian Maiden 
33 Russian Peasant, Holiday Dress 


BURLIUK, Davin 
Davin Davipovicu Bururuk was born July 9, 1882, at Kharkov. 
Entered the Kazan School of Fine Arts in 1898. Studied later at 
Odessa, at Munich Academy, and in Paris under Cormon. Since 
1909 a member of the Budnovy Valyet, and the Moscow cubo- 
futurist group. Left Moscow for the Urals and Siberia in 1918. 
Travelled and painted in Japan and the Southern Pacific, 1920-1922. 
Arrived in America from Kobe, September, 1922. 

34 South Sea Fishermen 

35 The Storm 

36 The Chained 

37 Revolution 

38 A Modern Marie Antoinette 

39 Fisherman 

40 Oriental Kitchen 


41 Near Fuji 


62 
63 
64 


Sister and Brother 
Girl from Guam 
In the Rice Fields 
Board Sawyer 
Resting 

Judas Kiss 

At the Window 


Coolie 
Lent by Mr. Robert Winthrop Chanler 


Midday 

Clouds 

Island Boy 
Rickshaw Man 
Irrigation 
Woodcutter 
Porter 

Tropical Rain 
Rice Planting 
Banana Flower 
Boatmen 
Afternoon Outing 
Kitchen Yard 
Japanese Landscape 


Sawyer 


CHERNOV, Vapim 


Vapim ANATOLIEVICH CHERNOV was born October 24, 1887, at 
Ekaterinoslav. Went to Petrograd in 1907, where he attended the 
private classes of Kardovsky. Later studied in Munich with Holloshy, 
and with Maurice Denis and Félix Vallotton at the Académie Rancon, 
Paris. Specialized in ecclesiastical and theatrical decoration. Left 
Petrograd for Reval, 1919. Arrived in America, February, 1921. 


65 Saint George 
66 The Garden of Chernomor 


Décor for Scene I, Act 2, Ruslan and Ludmilla 
67 Sketch for Interior Decoration 
68 Flora 
69-71 Three Décors for Judith, by Friedrich Hebbel 
72-74 Stage Décors I, I, III 


FATINSKY, SrrcGeEtr 


SERGEI FAaTINSKy was born at Odessa, 1887. At age of fifteen entered 
the Odessa School of Fine Arts, afterward studying for two years at 
the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, Petrograd. Owing to the un- 
settled political situation in Russia during 1905, he left for Paris, 
where he worked independently. Exhibits at the Indépendants and 
the Salon d’Automne. Resides in Paris. 


75 Sailors 
Lent by the New Gallery 


FECHIN, Nixo.al 


Nixouat [IvanovicnH FrecHIn was born November 26, 1881, at 
Kazan. Entered the Kazan School of Fine Arts in 1895, and the 
Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, Petrograd, as a special student, in 
1901. While at the Academy studied chiefly with Repin. Awarded 
diploma and travelling scholarship, 1909. Exhibited same year with 
the Peredvizhniki, and also appointed official state teacher, Kazan 
School of Fine Arts, which position he still holds. Member of the 
Imperial Academy, 1916. 


716 


7 


18 


19 


80 


81 


82 


83 


84 


85 


86 


87 


88 


89. 


Bearing Off the Bride 
Lent by Mrs. Clarkson Cowl 


Mademoiselle Lapojnikov 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Lady in Pink 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stummel 


Portrait of My Father. Oil 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Portrait of My Father. Tempera 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Portrait in Sunlight 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Portrait Sketch 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Young Woman with Necklace 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Young Woman Smoking 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stummel 


Peasant Lad 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stummel 


Christmas Singers 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Portrait of the Artist 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


Peasant Girl 
Lent by Mr. John R. Hunter 


Portrait of Young Woman 
Lent by Mr. John R. Hunter 


90 Nude Figure 
Lent by Mr. John R. Hunter 


91 Spring in the Steppe 
Lent by Mr. John R. Hunter 


92 Portrait of the Architect Abramychev 
Lent by Mr. John R. Hunter 


93 Portrait of Kissa 
Lent by Mr. Edward Duff Balken 


FEDER, Avo.ru 
Courtesy of the New Gallery 


ADOLPH FEDER was born at Odessa, 1886. Received no formal artistic 
training in Russia and left in 1906 owing to political and social unrest. 
Studied in Geneva and also in Paris at the Académie Julien under 
Jean-Paul Laurens. Dissatisfied, he entered the studio of Henri- 
Matisse. Exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, and was elected a 
Sociétaire in 1910. Resides in Paris. 


94 Pastoral 

95 Maternity 

96 La Bretonne 

97 Portrait of the Artist 


GONCHAROVA, Natatia 


NATALIA SERGEIEVNA GONCHAROVA was born May, 1882, on a 
country estate in the Government of Tula. In 1892 moved to 
Moscow, where she attended the Moscow School of Painting, Sculp- 
ture, and Architecture, completing the course in 1902. From 1907 
she exhibited with the most advanced cubist and rayonnist spirits of 
Moscow. In May, 1914, her stage setting for Le Coq d’Or achieved 
signal success in Paris, since which time she has resided in the French 
capital. 


98 Costume Design, for La Liturgie 
Lent by Mrs. Elise M. Stern 


29 


Oriental Woman, from Le Cog d’Or 
Lent by Dr. Christian Brinton 


GRIGORIEV, Boris 


>100 
>101 


102 
103 


104 


105 
106 
107 


108 
109 


110 


111 


Boris DimiTrRIEVICH GRIGORIEV was born at Moscow, July 11, 1886. 
At the age of twenty went to Petrograd and entered the Imperial 
Academy of Fine Arts. Studied with Kisselev, but was dismissed in 
1912. Elected a member of the Mir Iskusstva the same year, and 
went to Paris to pursue his studies independently. Was in Russia, 
painting and teaching art throughout the war and the revolution, and 
until January, 1919. Eventually reached Paris by way of Finland 
and Germany. Resides in Paris. 


*“Rassaya’’—Visages Russes 


Madonna of the Steppe 
Lent by Mr. Adolph Lewisohn 


Russian Peasant Types 


Toilers of the Field 
Lent by the New Gallery 


Harvest Time 
Lent by the New Gallery 


Portrait of the Artist 
Portrait of My Son. 
Catherine Breshkovsky 


**Grandmother of the Russian Revolution’ 


Portrait of Leon Chestov 


Monk 
Lent by the New Gallery 


> 


Parisian Types 
Lent by the New Gallery 


Young Man 


112 


113 
114 
115 


Young Woman 
From the ‘Seaside Inns”’ Series 


Normandy Peasant 
Normandy Landscape 
Brittany Landscape 


116-135 Twenty Pencil Drawings 


(Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Corte 1916-1922) 


GUDIACHVILI, Lavo 


136 
137 
138 
139 


Courtesy of the New Gallery 


Lavo GuDIACHVILI was born at Tiflis, 1896, the scion of an ancient 
and noble Georgian family. He began his artistic studies in Tiflis at 
the age of twelve. A travelling scholarship from the Georgian govern- 
ment enabled him to visit Paris in 1919, where he studied informally 
with Sudeykin. Exhibits with the Indépendants, at the Salon 
d’Automne, and with Mir Iskusstva. Resides in Paris. 


Bombance 
Street Vendor 
Adoration of the Magi 


Montmartre Family 


140-151 Twelve Drawings 


JAKOVLEV, ALEKSANDR 


152 


ALEKSANDR EVGUENIEVICH JAKOVLEV was born June 13, 1887, at 
Petrograd, where he passed his schooldays. Entered the Imperial 
Academy of Fine Arts at the age of eighteen. Studied under Zion- 
glinsky and Kardovsky. Awarded diploma and travelling scholar- 
ship, 1913, and studied for several years in Italy. Went to China in 
1917, and later visited Japan. Returned to Europe autumn of 1919, 
and settled in Paris, where he at present resides. 


Portraits, Port-Cros, 1921 


_ 153 In the Café de La Rotonde 
is Woman with Masks 
155 Chinese Head 
156 Masks 
157 Marionettes 
158 Chinese Woman 
159 Manchu Woman 
160 Soochow in Moonlight 
161 Seaweed Fisher, Oshima Island 
162 Boy Seaweed Fisher, Oshima Island 
163 Cactus and Fort 
164 Rural Drinking Place Near Pekin 
165 Combat Scene, Chinese Theatre 


166-185 Twenty Water Colours 
(China and Japan) — 


186-201 Sixteen Drawings in Black and White 
(Italy, China, Japan, Paris) 


KANDINSKY, Vassix1 


VASSILI VASSILIEVICH KANDINSKY Is the acknowledged leader of the 
Expressionist movement not only in Russia, but in Germany as well. 
Resided for several years in Munich where, in 1909, was co-founder of 
the New Artists’ Federation, and Der Blaue Reiter. Returned to 
Russia following the revolution, and since 1918 has occupied various 
important government posts. At present is professor at the Bauhaus, 
in Weimar. Author, Ueber das Geistige in der Kunst, etc. 


202 Painting with White Forms 
Lent by Miss Katherine S. Dreier 


KUSNETZOV, Nixo.uatr 


203 


NiKoual DimitrRIEvicH KusNEtTzov was born December 6, 1854, at 
Odessa. Did not seriously devote himself to art until he was twenty- 
five years of age. After ten years was appointed to a professorship in 
the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, Petrograd, a position he filled 
with distinction for over a generation. Remained in Russia until 
January, 1920, since which time he has resided in Paris. 


Portrait of My Daughter, Maria Nikolaievna Kusnetzova 


LARIONOV, MixKwain 


204 


Mixnait Fyoporovich Larionov was born May 22, 1881, near 
Odessa. At the age of twelve was taken to Moscow, later entering the 
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, where he 
studied chiefly with Ivanov. Suspended for a year in 1902. A pro- 
nounced modernist, he founded the Budnovy Valyet in 1909, and be- 
came head of the rayonnist movement. Since 1916 has resided in 
Paris, executing décors for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. 


The Peacock 
Lent by Dr. Christian Brinton 


MANIEVICH, Aspranam 


205 
206 
207 
208 
209 
210 


ABRAHAM ANSHELOVICH MaAntievicu was born at Mistieslavl, Govern- 
ment of Mogiliev, November 25, 1881. Entered the Imperial Art 
School at Kiev, in 1903, studying mainly under Selezniev. Later he 
attended the Munich Academy for three years, and in 1912 went to 
Paris. Appointed professor at the Kiev Academy in 1918, under the 
Kerensky government. Left Kiev July, 1921, reaching New York 
January, 1922. 


Destruction of the Ghetto 
Fastov, Near Kiev 
Moscow, Arbat Quarter 
Early Autumn 

Suburbs of Kiev 

Tripoli, Ukraine 


211 Decorative Panel 

212 “Miestetchko”’ 

213 Autumn Motif 

214 Autumn Sunshine 

215 Autumnal Symphony 

216 The Red House, Petrograd 
217 Moscow Courtyard 

218 Factory District, Moscow 
219 Early Spring, Near Kiev 
220 Colouristic Impression 


REMISOV, Nixo.watr 
Courtesy of Mr. Morris Gest 


NIKOLAI VLADIMIROVICH REmMIsOv was born May 7, 1887, at Petro- 
grad. Studied with Zionglinsky before entering the Imperial Academy 
of Fine Arts, where he remained from 1910 to 1917, chiefly under 
Kardovsky. Made his first success as a draughtsman and cari- 
caturist on Satyrikon. Left Petrograd October, 1918, remaining a 
year at Kerson. Reached Paris March, 1920, and has since been 
associated with Baliev’s Chauve-Souris. Came to America, January, 
1922. 


221 Russian Tavern 
222 Cabman 
223 Provincial Store 
224 Village Scene 
225 Décor for Chauve-Souris 
226 Windy Day 
227 Old Paris, Décor for Chauve-Souris 


228 In the Park 

229 Décor for Country House 
230 Cover Design, Anna Pavlova 
231 Décor for Fairy Tale 

232 Paris Fair I 

233 Paris Fair II 

234 Drawing I 

235 Drawing II 


SORIN, SaveELy 
Courtesy of M. Knoedler & Co. 


SAVELY ABRAHAMOVICH SORIN was born February 27, 1882, at Pol- 
ozk, Government of Vitebsk. After completing his elementary studies 
in the provinces he entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, Petro- 
grad, where he remained five years. Owing to the temporary closing 
of the Academy he went to Paris, returning to Russia in 1908. Subse- 
quently awarded diploma and travelling scholarship. Left Batum 
for Marseilles, arriving May, 1920, and has since resided in Paris. 
Came to America January, 1923. 


236 Portrait of Anna Pavlova 


Lent by the French Government from the Musée du Luxembourg 
237 Princess Olga Orlov, née Beloselsky-Belozersky 
238 Princess Elisso Dadiani 
239 Princess Mary Eristov 
>240 Madame Odyle Bazé 
241 Mademoiselle Vera Tischenko 


242 Miss Margaret Kahn 
Lent by Mrs. Otto H. Kahn 


243 The Philosopher, Leon Chestov 


244 
Q45 
246 
Q47 
248 


249 
250 


Miss Potter 

Head 

Study 

The Dramatist, S. Litovzev 


M. Sergei Sasonov 
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs — 


An Artist of Montparnasse 


Portrait Study of the Russian actress, Madame Kovanko 


SUDEYKIN, SERGEI 


251 
252 
253 
254 
255 
256 
257 
258 
259 


Courtesy of Mr. Morris Gest 


SERGEI J URIEVICH SUDEYKIN was born March 7, 1884, in the Govern- 
ment of Smolensk. At fourteen he entered the Moscow School of 
Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, studying with Korovin and 
Serov. Executed his first stage décor at age of seventeen for Ma- 
montov’s private theatre, Moscow. Dismissed from school with 
Larionov, 1902. Moved to Petrograd, 1907. Spent 1917 to 1919 in 
Crimea and the Caucasus. Arrived in Paris May, 1920. Came to 
America September, 1922, as decorative artist of the Chauve-Souris. 


The Moscow Fiancées 
Russian Winter Carnival 
Montagnes Russes 

The Quadrille 

Stage Décor, Katinka 
Décor, Russian Fable 
Children’s Toys 
Petrushka 


Décor for Grunka 


260 
261 
262 
263 
264 
265 
266 


Caroussel 

The Swing 

Russian Pastoral 

Décor for Russian Fair 
Mermaid, Russian Fair 
Strong Woman, Russian Fair 
“Grandaddy,’’ Russian Fair 


SHUKHAIEV, Vassiui 


267 
268 
269 
270 
271 


272 
273 
Q74 
275 
276 


Vassili Shukhaiev was born at Moscow, in 1887. Entered the Imperial 
Academy of Fine Arts, Petrograd, and pursued his studies under 
Kardovsky. Completed his academic training in 1913, the same year 
as Jakovlev. Following the outbreak of the revolution went to Finland 
where he lived and worked for a considerable period. Reached Paris 
November, 1920, where he has since resided. Member of the Mir 
Iskusstva. 


Women Bathing 

Portrait of Madame Andreyeva 
Portrait of Anna Pavlova 
Portrait of Madame M. 


Three Portrait Heads 
(Jakovlev, Shukhaiev, Madame Shukhaiev) 


The Mannekin 
Landscape, Finland 
Landscape, Roofs 
Izba 

The Cello 


277-279 Still-life Subjects, I, I, I, IV 


SCULPTURE 


ARKHIPENKO, ALEKSANDR 


Courtesy of the Société Anonyme 


ALEKSANDR ARKHIPENKO was born at Kiev, in 1884. The major 
portion of his artistic career has been passed not in Russia, but in 
Paris. In the autumn of 1919 he left France for Switzerland and 
Italy, finally settling in Berlin, where he at present resides. If not the 
actual initiator, he is the chief exponent of what he terms sculpto- 
peinture, or plastic painting. 


1 Still-life—t 

2 Still-life—i 

3 Woman Standing—I 
4 Woman Standing—II 
5 Woman Seated—I 

6 Woman Seated—II 


-DERUJINSKY, Gres 


GLEB VLADIMIROVICH DERUJINSKY was born August 13, 1888, on the 
country estate of Visoke, near Smolensk. At the age of seventeen he 
began his artistic training at the School for the Encouragement of the 
Fine Arts, Petrograd. Went to Paris in 1910 where he continued his 
studies under Verlet for two years. Returned to Russia, 1913, enter- 
ing the Imperial Academy in the classes of Zaleman. Left Petrograd 
for the Crimea November, 1917. Shipped as a sailor from Novorossysk 
for New York, reaching America June, 1919. 


7 Leonardo. Wood 
8 Leda. Wood 
9 Portrait Bust. Wood 


10 Aleksandr Illych Ziloti. Plaster 

11 Sergei Prokofiev. Plaster 

12 Nikolai Remisov. Plaster 

13 Miss Elizabeth Beer. Bronze 

14 Miss Lydia Perera. Bronze 

15 L’Aprés-midi d’un Faun. Terra-Cotta 
16 Adolf Bolm. Bronze 

17 On the Neva Promenade. Plaster 


PATLAGEAN, Numa 
Courtesy of the Galleries of Mrs. Albert Sterner 


Numa GRIGORIEVICH PATLAGEAN was born January 4, 1888, at Kishinev, 
Bessarabia. He entered the Municipal School of Art at the age of 
thirteen, studying with Okuchko. Following the disturbances of 
1905, he left for Geneva where he studied under Canier. From 1906 
to 1911 he continued his training in Paris, at the Académie de la 
Grande Chaumiére and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. {| Arrived ini New 
York October, 1922. 


18 Stylistic Head 
Lent by Mr. Robert Schwarzenbach 


19 Gioconda 

21). Masque 

21 Sculptural Head 

22 Decorative Head 

23 Architectural Masque 

24 Goddess. Wood 

25 A Head from the Middle Ages. Wood 


SUDBININ, Srrsaruim 
Courtesy of the Kingore Galleries 


SERAPHIM NIKOLAIEVICH SUDBININ was born March 9, 1867,: at 
Nijni-Novgarod. Before taking up sculpture he acted with the 
Moscow Art Theatre, and other dramatic companies. In 1902 left for 
Paris, where he definitely settled in 1904. Studied first with his 
countryman Bernstein, and from 1906 was associated with Rodin as 
pupil and assistant. Sociétaire, Salon d’Automne, Associé, Société 
Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Came to America, December, 1922. 


26 The Danse. Wood 
Lent by Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt 


27 Rodin. Bronze 

28 Diana. Marble 

29 Misery. Wood 

30 Virgin and Child. Wood 

31 Young Girl. Bronze 

32 Bacchante. Bronze 

33 Angel of the Apocalypse. Wood 
34 The Babylonian Woman. Wood 
35 Resurrection. Wood 

36 Saint George. Wood 

37 Annunciation. Wood 

38 Virgin and Child. Wood 

39 Pieta. Wood 

40 Maternity. Wood 

41 Leda and the Swan. Wood 

42 Head. Terra-cotta 

43 Virgin and Child. Plaster 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


SAVELY SORIN: Madame Odyle Bazé 


NIKOLAI FECHIN: Mlle. Lapojnikov 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


NIKOLAI FECHIN: Lady in Pink 
Lent by Mr. William S. Stimmel 


ABRAHAM MANIEVICH: Tripoli, Ukraine 


ABRAHAM MANIEVICH: Destruction of the Ghetto 


VADIM CHERNOV: Garden of Chernomor 


Ss 


The Love of Three Orange 


BORIS ANISFELD 


icago 


tute of Ch 


Lent by the Art Insti 


ADOLF FEDER: Pastoral 
Lent by the New Gallery 


NIKOLAI REMISOV: Russian Tavern 


LADO GUDIACHVILI: Adoration of the Magi 
Lent by the New Gallery 


LADO GUDIACHVILI: Street Vendor 
Lent by the New Gallery 


ALEKSANDR JAKOVLEV: Chinese Woman 


prey es 


ALEKSANDR JAKOVLEV: Woman with Masks 


SERGEI SUDEYKIN: The Quadrille 


SERGEI SUDEYKIN: Russian Winter Carnival 


— 


BORIS GRIGORIEV: “‘Rassaya’’—Visages Russes 


\ Brrrnrenrerinrn 


BORIS GRIGORIEV: Madonna of The Steppe 
Lent by Mr. Adolph Lewisohn 


Se 


ishermen 


South Sea F 


DAVID BURLIUK 


DAVID BURLIUK: Japanese Board Sawyer 


NUMA PATLAGEAN: Sculptural Head 
Lent by the Galleries of Mrs. Albert Sterner 


GLEB DERUJINSKY: Leda 


SERAPHIM SUDBININ: Angel of the Apocalypse 


SERAPHIM SUDBININ: Virgin and Child 


MIKHAIL LARIONOV: The Peacock 
Lent by Dr. Christian Brinton 


Woman Seated 


ALEKSANDR ARKHIPENKO 


Lent by the New Gallery 


COVER DESIGN BY VADIM ANATOLIEVICH CHERNOV. 
CATALOGUE PRINTED FOR THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM 
BY REDFIELD-KENDRICK-ODELL COMPANY, INCOR- 
PORATED. FIRST IMPRESSION, THREE THOUSAND 
COPIES. COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY CHRISTIAN BRINTON 


